Dark Souls: The Breath of Andolus
Dark Souls, later renamed Dark Souls: The Breath of Andolus, is a four-issue limited comic series published by Titan Comics, written by George Mann and illustrated by Alan Quah. Issue 1 was first released on April 6th 2016, 6 days before the release of Dark Souls III. A trade paperback was later released on November 2016. Story During the Age of Fire, the breath of the wyrm king Andolus nourished the land of Ishra, strengthening the First Flame. However, as man spread throughout the land, so did the Curse of Undeath, leaving the people to die and hollow. The human lord Baron Karamas learnt that the dying breath of Andolus would usher forth life, again letting the land flourish. But in his haste to cure his affliction, the Baron condemned the land to a grim fate. He pursued Andolus to the edge of Ishra, to the very mountain where the sacred fire burned, and struck down the creature. Life flourished anew, but without the wyrm to stoke it, the Flame would surely perish. In a crystaline labyrinth, a woman by the name of Fira awakens from a nightmare. She momentarily turns her sword on her companion, a scryer, whose name is revealed to be Aldrich, shows her a poppet she gave him, refreshing her memory, which is being drained by the curse. They have come to the labyrinth to seek out the Dragon Augerer, who wields the Dragon's Tooth, one of the three artifacts necessary to revive Andolus. As they traverse the labyrinth, the scryer warns Fira that the labyrinth is known to play tricks, reflecting the nature of the wanderer's souls to torment them. Fira falls victim to the labyrinth's tricks, encountering a man wearing the Iron Set, who accuses her of abandoning her fellow knights. She fends him of, and continues to the augerer, whom scryer stabs in the back while he is fighting Fira. Next, they search a forsaken forest for the Everlord, who wields a sword hewn from the bones of Andolus. Fira is once again plagued by the curse, slowly losing her memories, and scryer reminds her of their goal to revive Andolus, so that they might restore the land, including her order of knights and her native village of Harrowmark. They are beset by spider, though manages to fend them of. Finally, they face the Everlord, a demigod made of wood. Fira defeats him, but is impaled by his sword of dragon bone. After suffering through a nightmare where she witnesses her daughter and much of Harrowmark burning, Fira wakes up, now an undead. She finds that the scryer, missing, though there are signs of a struggle, and his tools remain. She makes her way to a fortress, where she finds Aldrich in a cell. A sorcerer is forcing him to foresee the future for a being she calls the Phoenix King. A dead, gutted body is seen in the cell. Aldrich proclaimed that he was made to do the unspeakable, implying the start of his cannibalism. She frees him, killing the sorcerer, and he tells her that the King has made him seek out the location of the First Flame. They make their way to the throne room, where they find the Phoenix King, in reality Karamas, cursed by Andolus to burn for all eternity, and wearing armor made from his hide. Karamas wishes to revive Andolus, so that his final breath might restore him, and make him ruler of the age of darkness that is to come. Fira kills him with the dragon's tooth, and they collect his armor, the last piece needed for Andolus' revival. On their way to the kiln of the First Flame, Fira hears the cry of battle, and comes across a soldier dressed much like herself. The man claims to be Jarus, a member of Fira's old order of knights. He accuses her of being the cause of her order's ruin, though she can't remember due to the curse. She finally remembers that she herself burned the villagers of Harrowmark to prevent the curst, and that Aldrich has been manipulating her, filling her mind with false memories so that she might be better suited to revive Andolus, and use his final breath to usher forth new life. Fira and Jarus decide to let Aldrich live, so that they can end the curse of undeath. Making their way to the kiln, Aldrich performs the ritual to revive Andolus, and the wyrm king lives anew. Fira engages the beast in combat, and brings it to its knees. Posed to strike the wyrm, and use its final breath, she hesitates. She will find her salvation not in restoring herself, but in breaking the cycle, and let the wyrm once again stoke the fire. She will remain undead, but she will have given hope to future generations. Aldrich attempts to strike the beast himself, but she fends him of, though allowing him to creep away to suffer the curse of undeath. Fira and Jarus go their separate ways, as Andolus creeps back into the kiln. Though years of darkness may lie ahead, the fire will one day nourish the land, and life will again flourish. What might become of Fira, a warrior of death in the land of the living, only the gods may know. Trivia * While it is told that The First Flame was created by Andolus, this remark contradicts with the nature of The First Flame as described in the game. It is a possibility that Andolus may have been related to the Chaos Flame instead, evidenced by Fira's remark of the spiders that surrounded the Everlord that they resembles the ones that came from Bed of Chaos. ** This is further supported by Baron Karamas' condition after he had slain Andolus, where he has been transformed into a burning monster with cracked lava skin, which only dragonhide armor can alleviate its pain. This resembles the appearance of Ceaseless Discharge, where the Orange Charred Ring is said to ease their pain. * The 'sorcerer' who was with Aldrich in the cell made a remark to The Witch of Izalith, casted her spell by hands and wore an attire similar to a combination of the female version of Tattered Cloth Set and Gold-Hemmed Black Set, signifying the relation to pyromancy and the Flame of Chaos * Even though there was a mention of an Age of Fire, the story may have taken place in the time between Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 3 instead. Before Aldrich became a Lord of Cinder, and the fascination of the nature of dragons and their connection to a cycle of flame is similar to the belief system in Drangleic. Fira's hollowing is also based off from Dark Souls 2, where the skin becomes green, with whitened out eyes and loss of memories. * It is a possibility that Aldrich's crystal necklace, a scrying tool which was required to be steeped in blood to use, was later made into Aldrich's Sapphire. In the comic Winter's Spite, a ring similar to Aldrich's Ruby is being worn by the ruler of Pernathia's arena, where he was imprisoned. Gallery 341548.jpg|Cover 1A. 492771755161.jpg|Cover 1B. 1453246642.jpg|1C. 76463546543.jpg|1D. 4927664543543.jpg|Gamestop cover. 5542344668.jpg|Bandai Namco cover. 32370798798.jpg|Diamond UK cover. 88563.jpg|Forbidden Planet cover. 45435454.jpg|AOC cover. 3447564.jpg|Cover 2A. Also used for the trade paperback cover. 35789.jpg|2B. 7454214.jpg|2C. 534677.jpg|2D (Forbidden Planet cover). 6534226.jpg|3A. 34796293.jpg|3B 87565342.jpg|3C. 23356657.jpg|Issue 3 (Forbidden Planet variant). 2357.jpg|4A. 68454243.jpg|4B. 7454254.jpg|4C. 4782647.jpg|Issue 4 (Forbidden Planet variant). Category:Comics